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At first glance, former Rockets forward Matt Bullard appears to be an unlikely hero. Despite standing 6'10", Bullard weighed just 215 lbs. and seldom mixed it up inside at either end of the floor, instead opting to hang around the 3-point arc and spot up for catch-and-shoot opportunities. He hardly ever drew fouls because he didn't attack the basket, and if you saw him dribble the ball more than twice before either passing or shooting, it was a rare event. In other words, Bullard was the kind of player about whom my high school coach would have derisively said, "He plays smaller than his height."

Despite his shortcomings as a player, though, Bullard was legitimately great at one thing: standstill jump shooting. Over the course of his 11-year NBA career, he knocked down 38.4% of his 3-point attempts, and made more than 40% on three occasions. Even more remarkable is the fact that Bullard made 599 career 3-pointers, and he turned the ball over only 319 times! For every turnover Bullard committed, he made 1.9 treys. Among players with 250 career 3-pointers, that mark ranks second only to current Miami Heat swingman James Jones (who has a whopping 2.7 3P/TO ratio in his 5-year NBA career). In 2000-01, Bullard turned in his most epic performance, drilling 86 threes vs. just 12 turnovers, for a staggering ratio of 7.2 3P/TO. Just let that sink in for a second... 7.2 threes for every miscue -- among players with at least one 3PM per scheduled game, no one else is even close to that ratio (the 2nd-best mark is Peja Stojakovic's 3.8 in 2007-08). Pretty impressive for a tall, skinny kid from Iowa who entered the league as an undrafted free agent, no?

That's why we want to honor Bullard's unmatched catch-and-shoot skills by giving out an award in his name to the player who leads the league in 3-pointers made per turnover. It's a great stat for identifying pure jump-shooters who lock and load from the outside with little concern for things like dribbling, driving, or getting anywhere near the lane, and Bullard was the unquestioned master, leading the league three times. The only qualification for the award is that you make at least 25 three-point field goals (13 for the 1999 lockout season). Here is a year-by-year rundown of "The Bullies" since Bullard himself entered the league in 1990-91:

One-upping even Bullard himself, Tucker led the NBA in "Bullard Index" four times -- although it should be noted that the league didn't really start taking the 3-pointer seriously as a weapon until Bullard hit his prime as the designated shooter on one of Houston's title teams in the mid-90s. Still, Tucker was a pioneer of the modern long-range specialist, taking as many as half of his FGAs from deep at one point in the late eighties (an unheard of rate at the time).

It's nice that Higgins won at least one Bully (albeit very late in his career), because he enjoyed 3 of his 4 best seasons by Win Shares after he started making extensive use of the 3-point shot in 1988-89. 5th-place finisher Dale Ellis also deserves special recognition for having won the Bullard Award in 1985 & 1986, long before the trifecta became a staple of NBA offenses.

Another win for Tucker, and we see Bullard appear among the leaders for the first time. Also, check out Suns teammates Ainge and Majerle, who took 51% and 40% of their FGAs from deep, respectively, as key players on Phoenix's Finals team.

People forget how deadly 3-D was in his prime, especially since his prime coincided with the NBA's new, shortened 22-foot arc. Meanwhile, Majerle continues his impressive run, and Steve Kerr makes the first of what will be several impressive appearances on the leaderboard.

It's no coincidence that Kerr and Legler had 2 of the highest single-season offensive ratings ever in 1996, with so many 3s and so few turnovers. Scott is equally remarkable for finishing 4th while recording the 2nd-highest single-season 3FG total in league history.

In what was easily the best season of his career, Henry James took nearly 60% of his shots from long distance and made 42% of them, while turning the ball over on only 10.7% of his possessions. If that's not a recipe for a great Bullard Index, I don't know what is.

Hey, it's that Bullard guy again! In 1997-98, the 3-point line was moved back to the original distance of 23'9" and 22' in the corners, causing the league's 3P/TO ratio to drop precipitously, but Bullard kept firing away and had his best mark yet.

Buechler is best remembered for his role on the second Michael Jordan-led Bulls dynasty, but he actually had his best season by Win Shares during the strike-shortened 1999 campaign, after he had left Chicago for Detroit. 61.7% of Buechler's attempts came from behind the 3-point stripe, he made 41.2% of them, and he turned the ball over on only 9.6% of his possessions, all of which added up to one of the top Bullard Index seasons of all time.

This is the season that really solidified Doc Rivers' fondness for Garrity throughout the coach's stay in Orlando. I'll leave it up to Magic fans to decide whether that was a good thing or not, but either way, Garrity could really stroke the J in his prime.

Today we think of Redd as a go-to guy, but early in his NBA career he was more of a pure shooter than a big-time scoring scoring threat. That all changed when Ray Allen was traded to Seattle in the middle of the 2002-03 season -- in his absence, Redd established himself as a deadly high-volume, low-mistake 3-point machine. Among players with at least 180 made 3-pointers, Redd's '03 ranks second only to Peja Stojakovic's 2007-08 in terms of Bullard Index.

Richie Frahm just snuck in under the eligibility rules, but it's an impressive season nonetheless. Most Bully winners do it with a sky-high 3P%, but Frahm accomplished his remarkable 4.86 Bullard Index on the strength of an amazingly low 5.5% turnover rate.

Man, nobody used to be better at standing around in the corner and knocking down open treys than Marshall. In retrospect it was pretty much his last good year, but we can still take the time to appreciate the super-efficient 41.6 3P% and 7.4% turnover rate Marshall posted during his lone full season as a Toronto Raptor.

Speaking of guys who had really good jump-shooting performances north of the border, Bonner basically took over Marshall's job as Toronto's designated 3-point ace after the defending Bully Award winner left for Cleveland. And he had a pretty nice approximation of Marshall's 2005 season in '06, before he left town for San Antonio.

As we mentioned before, James Jones is actually the all-time career leader in Bullard Index, though he's played a lot less than Bullard did -- we'll see if his nice 2.67 career ratio holds up over the course of his career. As one of many deadly Suns shooters in '07, Jones drilled 38% of his threes, but his most impressive trait was his remarkably low turnover rate (6.7%).

In another case of a guy just slipping in under the qualifying rules, Novak shattered Bullard's old record for highest single-season 3P/TO ratio by making 8.5 trifectas for every miscue. In a case of things coming full circle, it's fitting that Novak should be the one to put together such an amazing season (47.9 3P%, 5.1% turnover rate, .696 3PA/FGA) -- like Bullard, Novak is a thin, 6'10" pure shooter, and actually had his record-setting year as a member of (who else?) the Houston Rockets!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 7th, 2008 at 8:55 am and is filed under Trivia.
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Well maybe LeBron helped Damon Jones but maybe not not helping enough others or maybe they just aren't the right type or the offense isn't the right type for producing those type of high reward low-risk shots. Regardless it is an area to improve.

Bullard played one year for PAOK in Thessaloniki, Greece. The coach asked him to play like a big man and he really tried his best. Though he did hit some 3-pointers, all I remember of him is dunking and blocking shots. I knew him from his days in Houston and I was wondering if that was the same player. Then he returned to the NBA and his old habits, successfully as the numbers above indicate. Great post!